Heart of Darkness
by The Grand Architect of All
Summary: ""Someday this war's gonna end" well that would be just fine for the boys on the boat." In a full out Adult/Children war in Vietnam a Former KND Supreme Leader has gone insane and must be asssinated by TND Captain Nigel Uno.
1. Captain Uno

Nigel, a TND Special Agent, looks out the window to the busy Saigon street. "_Saigon...shit. I'm only in Saigon. Every time, I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle._" He moves to the bed, lies down. He's unshaven, exhausted, probably drunk. Soda bottles, photos, and different documents are scattered on the table. "_When I was home after my first operation, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. I hardly said a word to my girlfriend until I said yes to a break up. When I was here, I wanted to be there. When I was there...all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now. Waiting for a mission. Getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker. And every minute an adult squats in the bush...he gets stronger. Each time I looked around...the walls moved in a little tighter._" He Gets up going into a frenzy, drinking, doing some sort of martial arts, eventually slicing his hand on a mirror and collapsing onto the floor.

* * *

Two extremely sharp TND Agents walk up the stairs to Nigel's room, a Sergeant, who is carrying an envelope, and a Private. "_Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission. And for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service._"

They knock on the door. No Answer. They knock again. "Captain Uno, are you in there?" The Sergeant says sternly.

For a moment Nigel doesn't answer but eventually he strongly responds "Yeah I'm coming." The messengers wait for him. "_It was a real choice mission. And when it was over, I'd never want another._" Nigel unlocks the door and opens it. He bleeding from the hand and seems half dead. A silence falls between them before Nigel breaks it. "What do you want?"

The Sergeant regains his composure and asks. "Are you all right, Captain?"

Nigel responds "What's it look like?" as if he thinks himself looking fine.

Nigel turns back into the room and sits on the Sergeant follows him. Remembering his objective the Sergeant asks "Are you Captain Nigel Uno, 505th TND Battalion, 173rd Special Forces, Assigned to Vietnam TND Division?"

Nigel looks over at the Private by the door and shouts "Hey, buddy, you gonna shut the door?" The Private then enters the room, closing the door behind him.

The Sergeant then speaks up. "We have orders to escort you to the airfield."

Nigel looks at the Sergeant confused "What are the charges?"

"What Sir?"

"What did I do?" Nigel says thinking he's being court marshaled.

"There's no charges, Captain." The sergeant opens the letter he has been holding and shows it to Nigel "You have orders to report to Com-Sec Intelligence at Nah Trang."

Nigel looks at the letter closely "I see. Nah Trang, for me?"

"That's right." The sergeant folds the letter back and puts it back in the envelope. Nigel doesn't move. "Come on, Captain, you still have a few hours to get cleaned up."

Nigel begins to lay down on the bed pushing the pillow aside to lay on the bare mattress "I'm not feeling too good." He lays his head on the bed and closes his eyes.

The Sergeant begins to tell Nigel to get up "Captain?" but instead turns to the Private "Dave, come here and give me a hand. We've got a dead one." The two of them move over to Nigel and pick him up. "Come on Captain, Let's go take a shower."

Nigel doesn't fight but protests "Don't be an ass."

They get him into the bathroom and the shower. "Get hold of him good. We're going to take a shower, Captain." They turn on the cold water. "Stand under this, Captain." Nigel shudders and yells as they begin to clean him up.

**This is gonna be a fun ride if I can stick to it. I've been think about this story since the end of Rachel's team and later you will see the connection. I don't own anything.**


	2. Obviously Insane

Their darkly painted SCAMPER lands in a guarded TND compound somewhere in Nah Trang. The messangers jump out of the SCAMPER, leading Nigel, who seems in much better shape. As he gets out he sees a platoon of TND Soldiers drilling in the hot hazy sun. They seem to be on their first deployment. "_I was going to the worst place in the world, and I didn't even know it yet. Weeks away and hundreds of miles up river that snaked through the war like a circuit cable...plugged straight into Rachel._" Nigel follows the escort as the platoon marches. "_It was no accident that I got to be the caretaker of Colonel Rachel Mackenzie's memory, any more that being back in Saigon was an accident. There was no way to tell her story without telling my own. And if her story is really a confession, then so is mine._" Eventually they approach a civilian-type luxury trailer. It is surrounded by concertina wire, and its windows have grenade protection, but it still seems out of place in this austere military base. The guard checks his papers and allows him inside the trailer.

* * *

The Trailer was cool and comfortable, furnished like home. Pictures on the walls, certificates, photos of Supreme Leaders and other mementos decorated the room. A small table is covered with linen and place settings for three. A Colonel, a General, and a boy who appears to be a Secret Agent are inside. Nigel salutes, and the Colonel salutes him back. "Captain. Come on in."

"Thank you, sir."

"Stand at ease." The Colonel points to the Secret Agent "Captain, have you ever seen this gentleman before?"

"No, Sir"

"Met the General or myself?"

"No, sir. Not personally."

"You've worked a lot on your own, haven't you, Captain?"

"Yes, sir, I have."

"Your report specifies intelligence, counter-intelligence with the KND inside multiple different teams, including the attempt to decommission adults."

Nigel looks at the Colonel and remembers all that had occurred in the final year of his work in the KND. "I'm not presently disposed to discuss those operations, sir."

There is a pause as the colonel moves to the sofa. He bends down and picks up a dossier and looks at it. "Did you not work for Sector V?"

"No, sir."

"Did you not work for the previous Supreme Leader of the KND in an attempt to decommission adults?" Nigel doesn't answer. "Captain?" Nigel remembers he is talking to a superior and answers.

"Sir, I am unaware of any such activity or operation, nor would I be disposed to discuss an operation, if it did in fact exist, sir."

The general rises and says to Nigel. "I thought we'd have a bit of lunch while we talked. I hope you brought a good appetite, Captain." Nigel gets up and moves towards the dining table with the general and the secret agent. They sit down. The General sees Nigel's sliced but bandaged hand. "I noticed that you have a bad hand there. Are you wounded?"

"Had a little fishing accident on R and R, sir." Lying to try and hide his rampage the night before.

"Fishing on R and R?" The General asks in disbelief.

"Yes, sir."

"But you're feeling fit? You're ready for duty?" The General says knowing it probably wasn't the truth but believing it anyway.

"Yes, General. Very much so, sir."

They begin passing the food around. "Well, let's see what we have here. Roast beef, and usually it's not bad." Looking at the Agent the General instructs. "Try some, Jerry. Pass it around. To save a little time, we might pass both ways." He then looks at Nigel and says. "Captain, I don't know how you feel about this shrimp, but if you eat it, you'll never have to prove your courage in any other way."

The Colonel, who is not eating with them, walks to Nigel, holding a small photo. "Captain, you remember Colonel Rachel Mackenzie?" He shows the photo to Nigel.

"Yes, sir."

The Colonel accidentally drops the dossier. Papers and photos scatter all over the floor. He stoops down to pick them up. "Operations officer, Fifth Special Forces. Previous Supreme Leader of the KND."

The General motions for the Colonel to put the Dossier in front of him. "Luke, would you play that tape, for the captain, please?"

"Yes, Sir, Sorry, Sir."

The Colonel moves over to a tape player. "Listen to it carefully, Captain." The Colonel turns on the player.

First the voice of an records keeper is heard "October 9, 04:30 hours, Sector Peter, Victor, King."

The Colonel interjects for the moment before another voice can be heard. "These were monitored out of Cambodia. It's been verified as Colonel Mackenzie's voice."

Then the voice of Rachel Mackenzie is heard on the tape. "I watched a small snail, crawling on the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream. It's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor, and surviving." The Keeper's voice is heard again. "Transmission 11, December 30, 05:00 hours, Sector King, Zulu, King." Then she is heard again. "But we must kill them. We must incinerate them. Pig after pig. Cow after cow. Village after village. Army after army. And they call me an assassin. What do you call it, when the assassins accuse the assassin? They lie. They lie and we have to be merciful, for those who lie. Those nabobs. I hate them. I really hate them."

The Colonel turns the tape player off. "Rachel Mackenzie was one of the most outstanding officers the KND and TND has ever produced. She was brilliant. She was outstanding in every way. And she was a good girl, too. A humanitarian girl. A girl of wit and humor. She joined the Special Forces, and after that, her ideas, methods, became...unsound. Unsound."

Nigel thinks for a moment while the Colonel prepares to speak. "Now she's crossed into Cambodia with this Montagnard army of her, that worship the girl like a god, and follow every order, however ridiculous. And, I have some other shocking news to tell you. Colonel Mackenzie was about to be arrested for murder."

Nigel looks back in a bit of shock. "I don't follow sir. Murdered who?"

"Mackenzie had ordered the execution of some Adult intelligence agents. People she believed were double agents. So she took matters into her own hands."

The General looked back at Nigel. "Well, you see, Uno, in this war, things get confused out there. Power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God. Because the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what some called the better angels of our nature. Everyone has got a breaking point. You and I have them. Rachel Mackenzie has reached hers. And, very obviously, she has gone insane."

Nigel looks from the Colonel to the General to the Agent. They are intensely interested in his response, which they want to be yes. Nigel thinks carefully before saying. "Yes, sir. Very much so, sir. Obviously insane."

They pull back, satisfied. The Colonel speaks again. "Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a navy patrol boat, pick up Colonel Mackenzie's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it, learn what you can along the way. When you find the colonel, infiltrate her team by whatever means available, and terminate the colonel's command."

Nigel looks at the General. "Terminate...the colonel?"

"She's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And she is still on the field commanding troops."

The Agent looks at Nigel and says the only words he'll ever say to him. "Terminate with extreme prejudice."

Before Nigel leaves the Colonel say one more thing to him. "You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist." "Yes, Sir"

**I don't own anything, this was transcribed from the transcript of Apocalypse Now.**


	3. Thirteen

A SCAMPER flies over the mountains and rice paddies. Soon over the Mekong River until it begins to land at a dock area. "_How many people had I already killed? There were those six that I knew about for sure...close enough to blow their last breath in my face. But this time it was an TND Officer, and an old friend. That wasn't supposed to make any difference to me, but it did._" Nigel gets off the SCAMPER and into a small patrol boat. It moves away from the dock, out into the delta. "_Charging a person with murder in this place was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500. I took the mission. What else was I gonna do? But I really didn't know what I'd do when I found her._"

* * *

Nigel lies on the deck with his eyes closed. "_I was being ferried down the coast in a TND Navy PBR, a type of plastic patrol boat, pretty common sight on the rivers. They said it was a good way to pick up information, and move without drawing a lot of attention. That was okay. I needed the air and the time. Only problem was, I wouldn't be alone._"

A loud stomp awakens Nigel who sees a young crewman squatting in front of him, brushing his teeth. "Morning Captain" The Crewman says with a bit of enthusiasm.

"_The crew were basically just kids. Rock 'n' rollers with one foot in their graves._" Nigel looks at the Crewman and asks "How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

Nigel turns away in a bit of surprise at the age of the boy. Over laying on the other side of the Boat was another, not as old however, probably about 16 or 17. "_The machinist, the one they called Chef, was from New Orleans. He was wrapped too tight for Vietnam. Probably too tight for New Orleans._"

Nigel looks at the front of the boat and sees another 13-year-old. "_Lance, on the forward 50's, was a famous surfer from the beaches south of L.A. To look at him, you wouldn't believe he's ever fired a weapon in his life._"

Nigel looks back at the Boy brushing his teeth. "_Clean was from some South Bronx back alley, and I think the light and the space of Vietnam really put the zap on his head._"

Then Nigel looks at the helm at an older teen probably 17 or 18, he is studying a map of the Delta to try and find a suitable place to get into the Nung River. "_Then there was Phillips, the Chief. It might have been my mission, but it sure as shit was the Chief's boat._"

Chief motions for Nigel to come to the helm. Once he gets there Chief points at the map at two locations. "There's about two points where we can draw enough water to get into the Nung River. They're both hot, belong to the adults."

Nigel tries to hand a bottle of Soda to the Chief. "Don't worry about it." Chief pushes his hand away. "Don't drink it. You know, I've pulled a few special Ops in here. About six months ago, I took a man who was going past the bridge at Do Lung. He was TND Special Forces too. I heard he shot himself in the head."

Nigel takes a swig of Soda as the boat continues to move out into the ocean.

**Short Chapter but It starts to get interesting after this.**


	4. Death Cards!

Nigel is sitting looking down at a large pouch. He opens the flap and there are several dossiers inside. He opens one, thumbing through the material. Inside are the personal letters, photographs, reports, files-the entire case history of Colonel Rachel Mackenzie. "_At first, I thought they handed me the wrong dossier. I couldn't believe they wanted this girl dead. Third-generation TND, top of her class...Secret Agent, Supreme Leader, about a thousand decorations, etc., etc. I'd head her voice on the tape and it really put the hook in me, but I couldn't connect up that voice with this girl. Like they said, she had an impressive career. Maybe too impressive. I mean, perfect. She was being groomed for one of the top slots in the corporation. World Supreme Leader of Children, Galactic TND, anything. In 2008, she returned from an Operation with Advisory Command in Vietnam, and things started to slip. Her report to the Chiefs of the TND and the Supreme TND Leader was restricted. Seems they didn't dig what she had to tell them. During the next few months, she made three requests...for transfer to Airborne training, Fort Benning, Georgia...and was finally accepted. Airborne? She was Eighteen years old. Why the hell would she do that? 2012...joins Special Forces, returns to Vietnam._" Suddenly a distant explosion is heard. The crew all stop what they are doing and look out beyond the shore and the green jungled hills. There is a distant rolling noise, like interrupted thunder. The buffeting and noise continue.

Chef speaks up. "What's that?"

Nigel quickly responds. "Arc light."

"Whats up" says Lance from the cabin of the boat.

"SCAMPER strike."

Chef having not heard the Captain before "What's that?"

"Arc light!" Nigel Shouts louder.

"I hate that. Every time I hear that, something terrible happens."

Clean moving near the helm says "Adults don't never see them or hear them, man."

Suddenly Lance sees the SCAMPERS making the strike and says "There they are!" pointing up to the sky. Way up-past any clouds and barely discernible are the black silhouettes of four Bomber Typer SCAMPERS, their vapor trails streaming white against the dark blue sky.

"Concussion'll suck the air out of your damn lungs." Clean adds to the effectiveness of the strike. Then he sees the area of the strike. "Smoke! Secondary burning." Black smoke rises from the jungle.

"COOLBUSes over there. Lots of COOLBUSes." Chief says from the helm looking through his binoculars.

"Let's have a look Chief." Nigel says asking Chief for the binoculars. Chief hands Nigel the binoculars. He looks through them out at the burning coastline. "_It was the Air-Cav, First of the Ninth._" "That's them." He says to Chief. All the crew move to battle positions, get their flak jackets and helmets. "_Our escorts to the mouth of Nung River. But they were supposed to be waiting for us another thirty kilometers ahead. Well, Air Mobile. Those boys just couldn't stay put._"

The PBR moves to the beach through a chaos of other boats, low-flying helicopters, and soldiers rushing by onshore. A vast field of devastation, smashed and burning huts, shattered sampans and bodies washing around in the surf. Nigel jumps off the boat, Clean and Lance fall in behind him, they head ashore. "_First of the Ninth was an old cavalry division that was assigned to fight in Vietnam. They'd given the Adults a few surprises in their time here. What they were mopping up now hadn't even happened yet an hour ago._" They make their way across the beach, weapons in hand. Explosions go off around them; there is smoke everywhere.

Suddenly they are stopped by a familiar voice. "Go on, keep going. It's for television. Don't look at the camera." Nigel and the two who are following him stop incredulously, their M16s still in hand. "Go on, go on, keep going. Don't look at the camera." They look over and see a TND News Team and with the director, who was speaking, Numbuh 10. She keeps waving them by. "Just go by like you're fighting. Don't look at the camera. It's for television. Just go through. Just go by. Keep on going." Nigel, Lance, and Clean run by, staring into the camera the entire time.

They make their way toward the village under siege. Nigel stops to talk with a Sergeant, as a medevac SCAMPER takes off in the background. The COOLBUSes and SCAMPERs in the sky drown out most of their conversation. "Where Can I find the CO?" Nigel yells at the top of his lungs.

The Sergeant realizes what he said and says "That's the colonel coming down!" He points to a particular SCAMPER in the sky. He moves to a clear spot by a large bomb crater. He takes out a smoke bomb and pulls the pin and lays it down in the clearing, as it spews out orange smoke.

Nigel looks over to a confused Clean and Lance. "CO's on that chopper." As the SCAMPER begins to land Nigel moves back to Lance and Clean, they all kneel, trying to avoid the jet wash, as they look up. As it lands in the middle of the clearing a tall, strong-looking boy, wearing the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, jumps out of the helicopter. He puts on his Air-Cav hat, then stands to his full immense height and with his hands on his hips and surveys the field of battle.

Lieutenant, bomb that tree line back about a hundred yards. Give me some room to breath. He says with a commanding tone. "Yes, sir!" He starts walking, then turns and shouts to the Lieutenant. "Bring me my body cards!" "Yes, sir!" The Lieutenant moves back to the helicopter and The Colonel continues forward toward a besieged village.

A Captain from tank division comes running down the street, stops in front of The Colonel. "I'm the Fourth Tank commander. I've got five tanks broken down." He continues to speak about the tanks before he is interrupted by the Colonel "All right with the tanks. It's all right, Captain."

The captain turns and leaves, as the sergeant walks up leading Nigel, Lance, and Clean. "Captain Nigel Uno." They exchange salutes. Nigel takes out a set of orders and hands them to him. "I carry priority papers from TND Special Forces HQ, II Corps! I understand Nah Trang has briefed you on the requirements of my mission."

"What mission? I haven't heard from Nah Trang." The Colonel responds and quickly hands the report to the Major next to him. The Major looks at them and shakes his head no.

Nigel looks at the Colonel realizing that it is Patton Drilovsky. "Sir, you're supposed to escort us into the Nung!" The major hands the orders back to Nigel. By this time the lieutenant has run back in from the helicopter with the deck of playing cards. He hands them to Patton.

"We'll see what we can do about that! Just stay out of my way till this is done, Captain!" Patton cracks the plastic wrapping sharply, takes the deck of new cards and fans them. Then he strides past Nigel and his two young crewmen with no further acknowledgement the rest of his Posse follow him. Nigel, Lance, and Clean follow them.

He moves through the shell-pocked field of devastation, soldiers gathering around him. As he comes to each Adult or Teen (not TND mind you) corpse, he drops a card on it, carefully picking out which card he uses. "All right, let's see what we have. Two of spades. Three of spades. Four of diamonds, six of clubs...there isn't one worth a jack in the whole bunch. Four of diamonds..." He crosses on down the street, distributing his cards on top of the dead Adult and Teens.

Nigel, Lance, and Clean have been following Patton. Nigel bends down and picks up one of the cards from a dead Teen. Lance speaks up. "Hey, Captain, what's that?"

"Death cards."

"What?"

"Death cards. Lets the Adults know who did this." The Cards are regular playing cards with the crest of the First of the Ninth as the back.

As Patton moves through the corpses, selecting a card and flipping it on a body, or putting it behind an ear. He sees a soldier who is obviously shell-shocked from all the battle. "Cheep up, son." After saying this he moves on. Patton, his lieutenant, and major stop in back of a large gathering of village Children and Teens. They are standing around a TND Soldier and TNDV Interpreter, listening to them. "This is an area that's controlled by the Adults of the World and Teens against Kids! We are here to help you! We are here to extend a welcome hand to those of you who would like to return to the arms of the safety of the KND and TND protection service." They continue moving until they see a large boat that is loading up with villagers and their belongings. Patton stops and watches the G.I.s help them, then he moves over and looks at the inside, where the villagers are crowded together, waiting and scared. Seeing it is full he instructs the sailors. "Move it out!"

Patton turns and continues down the burning street with his group. He comes upon a wounded Adult. The man has tied a wash bowl over his belly-and is groaning for water. Patton turns to a TND soldier. "What's this?"

"This man's hurt pretty bad, sir. About the only thing holding his guts in, sir, is that pot lid."

Patton turns to a TNDV soldiers and notices he has something to say. "Yeah? What does he have to say?"

The Soldier takes his chance and tells Patton. "This soldier is dirty Adult. He wants water. He can drink paddy water."

This throws Patton into a sort of rage "Get out of here! Lieutenant, give me that canteen." He pushes the TNDV soldier away, turns, and then gets a canteen full of water from the lieutenant. "Anyone who's brave enough the fight-" The TNDV soldiers tries to stop him. "Get outta here! I'll kick you ass! Any man brave enough to fight with his guts strapped on him can drink from my canteen any day."

He stoops down to begin to quench the prisoner's thirst from his canteen. before a TND soldier rushes up to him. "Colonel, I think one of those sailors is Lance Johnson, the surfer."

Patton immediately stops dipping his canteen down. "Where? Here? You sure?"

The solder points at Lance. "Down there."

Patton rises, hands the canteen back without giving the man any water, and moves over to Nigel and his crew. Looks at Lance. "What's your name, sailor?"

Lance looks at him confused for a second before saying "Gunner's Mate Third Class L. Johnson, sir."

Clean begins to announce his name as well. But before he can get a word out Patton cuts him off. "Lance Johnson the surfer?"

"Yes, sir."

Patton smiles and sticks out his hand. "Well, it's an honor to meet you Lance. I've admired your nose riding for years. Your cutback, too. I think you have the best cutback there is."

"Thank you, Sir." Lance says returning the handshake.

Patton shakes his head a bit. "You can cut out the "sir" crap, Lance. I'm Patton Drilvosky. I'm a goofy foot." Patton leads Lance off to meet some other soldiers. Nigel's entire top-priority mission has been out in the background. "I want you to meet some guys. This is Mike from San Diego. Johnny from Malibu. We're pretty solid surfers. None of us are anywhere near your class, though." The one he called Mike speaks up. "No way."Lance shakes their hands.

Patton moves on, the group follow him. "We do a lot of surfing around here Lance. I like to finish operations early, fly down to Yung Tau for the evening glass. Been riding since you got here?"

Lance looks back in surprise at the general impossibility of the question. "No way. I haven't surfed since I been here." Patton leads them further into the loud battlefield.

* * *

A few hours have passed since the battle the area is now illuminated by large cans filled with sand and jet fuel, bonfires, and the burning village in the background. There are maybe fifteen to twenty SCAMPERs and COOLBUSes secured against the wind, in orderly patterns. Men are grouped around the fires, eating steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, drinking soda. It has the bizarre resemblance of some sort of barbarian beach party. "_Drilvosky had a pretty good day for himself. They choppered in the T-bones and the soda...and turned the L.Z. into a beach party. The more they tried to make it like home, the more they made everybody miss it._"

Patton is seated at the fire with some of his men, strumming a guitar and singing. Patton finishes the song and looks over at the soldier cooking his steak. "Make my meat rare. Rare but not cold."

"_Well, he wasn't a bad officer, I guess. He loved his boys, and you felt safe with him. We was one of those guys that had a weird light around him. You just knew he wasn't going to get so much of a scratch here._"

Patton looks at Nigel, who is more or less siting by himself. "What happened to your mission, Captain? Nah Trang forget all about you?" He laughs. Nigel gets up, carrying the map he's patiently been holding.

He lays it down in front of Patton; squats and points. "Sir, two places we can get into the river. Here and here. It's a pretty wide delta, but these are the only two spots I'm really sure of." Essentially repeating what Chief had told him earlier.

Patton looks at the points. "That village you're pointing at is kind of hairy, Uno."

"What do you mean "Hairy", sir?" Says Nigel looking confused.

"It's hairy. Got some pretty heavy ordinance. I've lost a few recon ships in there now and again." The Chief comes over and leans in to take a look at the map. "Mike, you know anything about this point at Vin Drin Dop?"

"That's a fantastic peak." Mike says referring to the Wave height.

"Peak?" Patton responds quickly.

"About six foot. It's an outstanding peak. It's got both the long right and left side, with a bowl section that's unbelievable. It's just tube city."

Patton considers this. "Well, why didn't you tell me that before? A good peak. There aren't any good peaks in this whole shitty country."

"It's really hairy in there, sir. That's where we lost McDonald. They shot the hell out of us there. That's the Adult's Beach."

The Chief looks at the map and tells Patton. "We may not be able to get the boat in. The draft at the mouth of that river may be too shallow."

Patton rises and looks at Nigel. "We'll pick your boat up and put it down like a baby, right where you want it. This is the First of the Ninth, Air-Cav, son. Air mobile! I can take that point and hold it just as long as I like, and you can get any place up that river that suits you, young Captain. Hell, a six-foot peak! All right. Take a gunship back to division." He looks over at Lance. "Lance, go with Mike and let him pick out a board for you. And me my Yater Spoon, the eight-six."

Mike looks at Patton doubtful of the now upcoming battle. "It's pretty hairy in there. It's the Adult's Beach!"

Patton looks at him, a bit angry. "Adults don't surf!"

**Any reviews are well appreciated.**


	5. Smells like Victory

It is the next morning. The SCAMPEs, pilots, and men are ready for battle. The SCAMPERs slowly start up, as the soldiers scurry to their various positions. Patton and his group, including Nigel and the Crew, walk across the field. They all get into a SCAMPER, except Patton. He takes off his hat, reaches in, and pulls out his helmet and puts it on.

Chef looks out at the other SCAMPERs. "Jesus, Clean, you ain't believe this. Look." The PBR being airlifted up by a SCAMPER.

Clean looks over at Chief. "Hey! They're picking up the boat!"

Patton picks up some gloves and starts to put them on as he crosses to the gunner by the helicopter. "How you feeling, Jimmy?"

"Like a mean teen, sir!" The Gunner says with great enthusiasm.

Patton looks a the Division Bugler. "All right, son, let 're rip." The bugler begins to play a Charge call as Patton climbs into the SCAMPER. The SCAMPERs takes off gas turbines belching fire from their jet pipes. Sand and dust fill the air as twenty SCAMPERs rise. The SCAMPERs deploy into a formation.

* * *

Nigel looks ahead, Patton sits near the door. Below, they see the jungle whisk by and they are suddenly over the ocean, low and fast. Nigel sees all the Calvary Boys anticipating, holding their rifles and looking down. Looking out from the side door he sees the various troop ships moving by. The men waiting, sitting on the floor, sitting on their helmets, looking back at him.

Patton cranes his neck and leans out to watch the waves, then turns back to Lance. "I never have got used to a light board. I can't get used to one. I'm used to a heavy board."

Lance thinking on the subject responds. "I know, it's a real drag."

Patton surprised by his answer says "You prefer a heavy or light board?"

"Heavier." Lance says without hesitation

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Patton thinks for a moment. "I thought young guys like lighter boards."

"Can't ride the nose on those things."

A pilot alerts the Colonel. "Duke Six, this is Eagle Thrust Seven. We've got it spotted."

Patton motions to Lance then says into his mouth piece. "Eagle Thrust, put on heading two-seven-zero, assume attack formation."

"That's a Roger, Big Duke. We're going in hot. Here we go."

Patton Motions to Lance again to speak to him. "We'll come in low out of the rising sun, and about a mile out, we'll put on the music."

"Music?"

"Yeah, I use Wagner. Scares the hell out of the Growns. My boys love it."

Lance turns to Nigel and shouts. "Hey, they're gonna play music!"

Patton looks around for a moment as if making a decision then nods to himself. "Eagle Thrust, put on psy war op. Make it loud. This is a Romeo FoxTrot. Shall we dance?" Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie", begins blaring through the external speakers of the SCAMPERS, as they make their decent into enemy territory. With enormous twelve-driver loudspeakers blasting out the music it would be impossible for any village not to hear it.

* * *

A typical quiet Vietnamese coastal village, rather large, built along the beach and trees with rice paddies behind. Sampans are pulled into a cove where the are being unloaded. All aspects are being controlled by an adult force there.A teacher and teen come out into the courtyard, quickly followed by other students pouring from the schoolhouse in the background. An Adult Forces soldier runs in to the teacher, who then turns back to the children. The soldier waves to get the children to get out of the area so they can't see the uprising attack.

Soon the village is buzzing with activity. Trenches are used to pass weapons and ammunitions, Teens and Adult Soldiers rush along the trenches to take their positions. One group of Teens is rushing along the trenches and taking the camouflage covering off a large automatic antiaircraft weapon.

* * *

Patton is monitoring the transmission and watching the spectacle as his SCAMPERs begin firing their fiery weapons at the different parts of the Village destroying different hut and homes and downing many Adult and Teen soldiers. Nigel looks down at this incredible battle. Suddenly one SCAMPER contacts Patton. "We've spotted a large weapon down below. We're gonna go down and it out." The helicopter shakes as the smoke of the rocket shoot ahead causing a Vietnamese house to go up in Flames

Patton sees the spectacle from his SCAMPER "Outstanding, Red Team. Get you a case of soda for that one."

The pilot is watching Vietnamese loading ammunition into an old Citroën car. The copter circles over them. "We're over the village right now. I think I see a vehicle down in the courtyard. I'm gonna check it out."

"Well done, Hawks. Well done. Want some twenty-Mike-Mike-Vulcan right along those tree-lines. Ripple the shit out of them." Patton says into the mic.

"Got a vehicle on the bridge, fifty caliber on-board. He's moving across to resupply weapon."

"Big Duke Six. Clear the area. I'm coming down myself." Patton thinks to himself for a moment. "Don't these people ever give up?" Patton's SCAMPER circles the area and hit the Citroën that's trying to cross the bridge. The car bursts into flame and falls into the river.

Lance looks at Patton. "Nice shoot, Patton!" The SCAMPER suddenly lurches over to the right. The ship is jostled around badly. There are some flames and smoke and it looks as though the SCAMPER has been seriously hit. There is confusion and we realize that the bullets have hit a box of flares which have gone off inside the copter. Patton looks around with real concern to remove the flare. "Un-ass that shit and get it out of here! It's just a flare, it's alright, it's just a flare. Everybody all right? Lance, you all right?"

"I'm fine!"

A small group of COOLBUSes come down and land, kicking up clouds of dust. Soldiers start to jump off, run for cover, as shells hit the ground. All jump out except for one Young Soldier. "I'm not going! I'm not going! I'm not going!" Another soldier comes back, grabs him by the arm, and pulls him out of the COOLBUS.

The Soldiers proceed in driving to village plaza, firing into houses. One Adult Soldier fires his rifle into a row of storage jars in front of a house. They explode of Gunpowder. A TND Soldier is thrown by the blast.

One Pilot sees the explosion. "We got some secondaries down there in the plaza." The Soldiers are able to push the Adults out of the plaza. "Hold onto your positions." Then the TND Soldiers throw a yellow smoke bomb. "Duke Six, Duke Six. We've got wounded down there."

Soldiers huddle around the severely wounded soldier, who is screaming out. The radio man is frantically calling for a medevac as two Vietnamese Adults babble on for their lives, explaining that they didn't know the booby trap was near their house.

Patton is looking out the door as he flies from the river down over the courtyard. "I want my wounded out of there and in the hospital in fifteen minutes. I want my boys out."

"This is Ten-Ten, we're going to be in there and get out." As the medevac SCAMPER comes down landing by the smoke. They carry the wounded soldier into the helicopter. Frantic TND Soldiers push the two Vietnamese Adults into the medevac ship for questioning. A Vietnamese Teen suddenly rushes out from one of the buildings, making a fuss about the older Vietnamese. Then she throws her coolie hat into the open SCAMPER door. "She's got a grenade! She's got a grenade!" The SCAMPER Blows into flames. Boys rush out on fire. They frantically try to put themselves out.

Patton is looking down on the burning helicopter. His pilot looks over at him. "They blew the shit out of it."

"Damn savages." Patton says back.

The Co Pilot sees the same teen and two adults running towards the jungle. "Holy Christ, she's a SAP. Go and get that traitor. Get over there, Johnny. Blow her to bits.

Another SCAMPER swerves down. They can see the disaster as well as the three Vietnamese running away. It Roars down, the machine gunner begins firing. The Vietnamese are mowed down. Then all of sudden shells start firing from the grove of trees at the copter. "We gotta get some air up in these trees. It's eat-up with the enemy down there." The SCAMPER swerves past the tree line taking sniper fire and finally a dead-on hit. It swerves around in circles, black smoke coming from it, cascading toward the ground.

SCAMPERS fire at the bridge. Smoke and debris fly upward. Geysers of water almost obscure it. The bridge is destroyed, the village burns in the background. Patton turns to look at Lance. "What do you think?"

Lance responds referring to the battle. "It's really exciting, man."

"No, no! The waves!"

"Oh, right." Lance responds with not too much surprise.

Patton looks out at the waves. "Look at that, breaks both ways. Watch. Look! Good six-foot swells!"

Patton's SCAMPER kicks up a cloud of dust as it sets down. Patton pops out, followed by Lance and other officers and strides across the beach looking out toward the sea. One soldier notices a mortar round coming in. "Incoming!" They all dive except Patton; he's watching a big set. The shell EXPLODES in the water about a hundred yards away, sending up a geyser of spray. Patton is unmoved. The others get up and join him.

One of Patton's officers leans to him. "This L.Z. is still pretty hot, sir. Maybe you ought to surf somewhere else."

Patton looks with anger. "What do you know about surfing, Major? You're from damn New Jersey!" He whistles Mike and Johnny over, who look like they're ready to hit the dirt again as explosions go off around them. "I wanna see how rideable that stuff is. Go change."

Mike looks with surprise. "It's till pretty hairy out there, sir."

"You wanna surf, soldier?"

They nod yes meekly.

"That's good son, because you either surf or fight. That clear?" They turn and leave. Patton grabs an M16 from one of the guards they all think he's going to shoot the surfers or someone so they run back uneasy. "One get going. I'll cover for them." Patton looks at Lance and then shouts to the others. "And bring a board Lance!" He cocks the weapon and Lance looks around uneasily.

Nigel looks at a nervous Lance. "We can't do shit till the boat gets here."

Patton looks at Lance again. "Lance, I bet you can't wait to get out there."

"What?"

Patton starts gesturing to the Ocean. "See how they break both ways? One guy can break right, one left, simultaneous. What do you think of that?"

Lance looks for an excuse to not surf. "Patton, I think we ought to wait for the tide to come up." He starts to walk back to Nigel. Patton signals him back. "Lance, come here. Look."

Another soldier notices another mortar round. "Incoming!"

A shell screams over and they all hit the dirt except Patton. It explodes, throwing sand through the air. Patton leans down yelling over the noise. "The tide doesn't come in for six hours! You wanna wait here for six hours?"

The PBR is in the sky, being dropped by the helicopter onto the water.

Mike and Johnny are out on the water on their boards, trying to surf. Patton can be heard over a megaphone. "Okay, fellas, quit hiding. Let's go take off."

Nigel looks angrily at Patton. "Damnit! Don't you think it's a little risky for R and R?"

Patton looks back with the same amount of anger plus a bit of authority. "If I say it's safe to surf this beach Captain, it's safe to surf this beach! I mean, I'm not afraid to surf this place! I'll surf this place!" He rips off his shirt and scarf. Patton sees a radioman. "Give me that R-T, soldier." He puts the phone to his head. "Dove Four, this is Big Duke Six. I want that tree line bombed!"

The Bomber pilot quickly responds to Patton. "Big Duke Six, Roger. Dove One-Three, stand by."

"Bomb them into the stone age, son." He throws the R-T back to the soldier.

The Bomber Pilot contacts his squadron of bombers. "Hawk One-Two, Dove One-Three. They need some napalm down there. Can you put it there?"

"Right, One-Three. We're fixed to mess with them."

"Trying to suppress some mortar fire off the tree line down there."

"Roger. Here we come."

"Good. Give it all you got and bring in all your ships. Wing abreast."

"Big Duke Six, this is Dove One-Three. The bombers are inbound now. They got about thirty seconds to bomb station. Get your people back. This is gonna be a big one."

Patton returns to Lance, who is cowering in a foxhole with Nigel. "Don't worry. We'll have this place cleaned up in a jiffy, son. Give me those shorts." He turns to his aide, who hands him a pair of Air-Cav trunks. "These are from the Air-Cav, a present from me and the boys. I wanna see you do your stuff out there.

Bombers break the trees and the entire tree line Erupts into fire with an immense amount of napalm. Patton stands there, hands on hips, looking at the burning jungle in the looks to Lance. "You smell that? Do you smell that?"

"What?"

Patton points to the trees. "Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that." He crouches down next to Lance and Nigel. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed for twelve hours...and when it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of them, not one stinking dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell? The whole hill" He stays still for a few seconds. "Smelled like victory."] He looks of nostalgically. A shell comes in and Hits in the background. Nigel and the soldiers react; Patton ignores it. "Someday this war's gonna end." A tremendous sadness enveloping him. The he stands up and walks off. Nigel turns and looks toward him. He understands what the colonel is saying to him.

Suddenly Patton senses something. He stops, lifts his hand and licks his fingers and puts then in the air. Then he looks with alarm to Lance. "Lance! The wind! The Wind! It's blowing onshore! It's gonna blow this place out. It's gonna ruin it!"

Lance sees this as an opportunity to leave. "Not cool!"

Patton realizes what Lance is saying. "It's the napalm, that's what's doing it!"

Nigel intervenes trying to get onto the river faster. "I'm really sorry, Colonel, but I'm afraid that does it. The kid's got a reputation. You can't expect him to surf those sloppy waves."

Patton hears this. "I understand what you're saying."

Lance plays along with Nigel's idea. "Yeah, I'm an artist, Bill. I couldn't surf that crap."

Nigel calmly goes about picking up Lance's clothes as Patton apologizes to Lance for the conditions. "Look, I apologize. It's not my fault. The waves are getting blown out by the napalm. It's the bombs causing a vortex with the wind."

"I accept your apology." Says Lance pretending to care.

"Hang around just twenty minutes."

"Some other time, Patton." Nigel says trying to get out of there

"Just twenty minutes!"

Nigel grabs Lance and walks him away from Patton. As Lance shouts another thing to Patton "I'm an artist!" Nigel quickly tells Lance to keep walking as Patton picks up his Megaphone. "Let's give it a try, guys. One goes left and one goes right." He turns and sees Lance and Nigel leaving. "Look, Lance..." He continues on asking Lance to stay.

Lance and Nigel keep walking, fast. Nigel leans towards Lance. "You through surfing?"

"Yea"

"Wanna say good-bye to the colonel?"

"No!"

"You sure?" Asks Nigel sarcastically.

"Yeah!"

"Then let's get the hell out of here!"

Patton is left frantic on the beach with his megaphone. "Lance, it's the napalm! Just wait twenty minutes! Damnit!" Nigel and Lance run toward the PBR in the distance. In his frustration, Patton throws the megaphone in the air and wanders off.

The crew help Nigel and Lance climb onto the boat. Suddenly Nigel sees something and stops. In a pile of equipment that the SCAMPERs left are two surfboards Nigel looks at them. "Don't leave without me!"

Clean sees Nigel run back to the SCAMPERs. "Where the hell are you going?"

Nigel runs to the SCAMPER where Patton's surfboard is attached. "Incoming!" All the soldiers at the SCAMPER duck and during that moment Nigel snatches the Colonel's surfboard. A soldier tries to stop him. "That's the colonel's surfboard!" Nigel whacks the Soldier with the surfboard. "Get off me! It's mine!" He rushes back to the boat, handing the board up to Clean, and scampers aboard. Clean stuffs the board in the stern. The boat turns, Engines running and roaring off toward the deeper water of the river.

**Review are appreciated. **


	6. TIGER!

The crew is relaxing. Clean sits down next to Chef, who has pulled out a large bag of sugar. "Chef, pour it out, man. Come on, let's get sugar high."

Chef looks over at Lance. "Want some sugar?"

Clean looks at Chef extremely anxiously. "Pour it."

"_Someday this war's gonna end. That'd be just fine with the boys on the boat. They weren't looking for anything more than a way home._" Lance looks over at Nigel who is inside the cabin of the boat. "Captain?" He says offering a bit of sugar. Nigel waves it off and closes the flap. "_Trouble is, I'd been back there...and I knew that it just didn't exist anymore. If that's how Patton fought the war...I began to wonder what they really had against Rachel. It wasn't just insanity and murder. There was enough of that to go around for everybody._"

* * *

The PBR is parked, hidden under some trees along the riverbank.

"I'm not here...I'm walking through the jungle gathering mangos. Chef is lying on his back, his eyes closed. Lance is standing on the riverbank next to the PBR squating next to a blue bucket washing his Air-Cav trunks. A SCAMPER is heard coming toward the vicinity of the boat. The wind begins to hit the trees and boat.

Clean looks up and sighs. "Hey, Chief? Here comes that colonel guy again." The Sound of the SCAMPER gets closer...and an indistinguishable language on a loudspeaker. Lance gathers his bucket and soap and jumps up on the PBR. Soon enough the voice is discernible as Patton's. "I will not harm or hurt you. Just give me back the board, Lance. It was a good board and I like it. You know how hard it is to find a board that you like." The SCAMPER drones on into the distance as the same speech starts again farther off eventually the noise ceases.

Chef looks over at the Chief. "Determined, ain't he?"

Nigel snaps off a salute at the passing copter. It disappears into the distance. Clean looks over to Lance. "Jesus Christ. That guy's too much, man."

Lance looks at Nigel. "Do you think he would've shot us?"

Nigel thinks then responds. "He would've shot us on the beach, or if he saw me taking his board."

"Let's get this board out of my turret."

Clean laughs. "Sucker."

"Come on, how am I gonna shoot him the next time he comes around?"

Nigel laughs as well then picks up on Lance's point. "Hey, Chef, make some room back there for the board." They stow the board in the back of the boat, hiding it.

Nigel moves up to the helm where the Chief is. I wonder if that's the same chopper."

Nigel looks at the Chief sarcastically. "Hell, he's probably got them all over the river with that recording. We'll have to hold up here till dark, Chief." He turns to Lance who is loading his dual 50's. "Don't worry Lance, he won't follow us too far."

"What makes you say that?"

"You think that big Cav colonel wants everyone up river to know we stole his board?"

"I didn't steal it!"

Nigel laughs. The Chief looks at Nigel with a serious looks on his face. "Captain? Just how far up this river are we going?"

"That's classified, Chief. I can't tell you." Nigel sees the Chief with a look of distrust. "We're going up pretty far."

Clean hears this. "Is it gonna be hairy?"

"I don't know, kid. Yeah, probably."

The Chief looks at Nigel with a sarcastic look. "You like it like that, Captain? When it's hot, hairy?"

"Maybe you'll get a chance to know what you are in some Diplomatic Moon-base.

Chef steps forward with a plastic bucket. "Hey, Chief, I'm gonna go get those mangoes now, okay?"

"Take somebody with you."

Nigel quickly stands up. "I'll go with him." He turns and follows Chef off the PBR. They climb up the bank, away from the boat, and into the jungle.

* * *

Chef and Nigel cautiously walk through the dark underbrush.

"Chef?" Nigel says.

"Yes, sir."

"How come they call you that?"

"Call me what, sir?"

"Chef. 'Cause you like mangoes and stuff?"

"No, sir. I'm a real chef. I'm a saucier."

"Saucier?"

"Yes, sir. See, I come from New Orleans. I was raised to be a saucier. A great saucier."

"What's a saucier?"

"We specialize in sauces." Chef looks around for a mango tree which he can't currently find. "Gotta be a mango tree here somewhere...Then, I was supposed to go to Paris, to the Escoffier School. But then I got called join the TND. Well, I joined the navy. Heard they had better food. Cook school, that did it."

"Oh, yeah? How's that?"

They both sit down near a mango tree. "You don't wanna hear about that. They lined us up in front of a hundred yards of prime rib. All of us, you know, looking at it? Magnificent. Magnifique. Next thing, they're throwing the meat into these big cauldrons."

Nigel hears something in the jungle during this explanation. He becomes alert. "All of it. Boiling it. I looked inside, man, it was turning grey. I couldn't believe that one! That's when I applied for radioman's school, but they-" Chef looks up, seeing Nigel standing a distance away, poised with his rifle. Nigel signals to him to come cautiously. He motions to Chef to move with him, each covering the other. They walk a few yards from where they have heard something move. "What is it? Adults?"

Nigel is moving through the jungle cautiously, he is comfortable in this environment. He signals and directs his way very expertly, giving silent instructions to Chef on how to move with him. They seem to have the intruder localized and proceed very quietly toward where he is.

Suddenly the grass folds almost to Nigel, and a huge tiger leaps out at them, snarling magnificently. They fire wildly, emptying their is extremely scared. "It's a tiger! It's a tiger, man! A tiger!" He turns and bolts through the jungle, as scared as anyone can be.

Nigel backs out of the clearing, covering the bushes and runs, scared out of his head as well. They fire their M16s indiscriminately running back to the boat, screaming.

* * *

The crew is armed. They've heard the screaming. Lance has the twin fifties pointed into the jungle. Chef comes screaming out of the brush. Throws his rifle in the boat and dives headfirst after it. Chief sees the spectacle. "Battle stations. Lance, up front. Get on your sixty, Clean."

Chef runs over to the Chief. "Tiger!"

Nigel comes running into the boat, later because of his delayed reaction to the tiger. "Let's go!"

Chef shouts to the Chief about some advice he gave earlier. "Chief, you were right. Never get out of the boat!"

Chief yells over to Clean. "Clean, bring that 60 forward."

Chef continues rambling on about leaving the boat. "Never get out of the boat! I gotta remember! Gotta remember! Never get out of the boat!" Chief ignoring this shouts to him about the "enemy". "How many is it?"

"A tiger!"

"What?"

"Tiger!"

"Tiger?"

All of a sudden Chef goes into a rampage. Shouting obscenities and different rambling about the tiger and wanting to cook. The others try to calm him down specifically Lance. "You're all right. You're all right."

"All right." Chef begin calming down. "It's gonna be all right. It's gonna be all right. Never get out of the boat. 'Bye, tiger! 'Bye tiger!" The boat pulls away as he continues ranting about the tiger.

Nigel is looking back into the jungle. "_Never get out of the boat. Absolutely damn right. Unless you were going all the way._" The PBR moves down the dark, silent river through the night. "_Rachel got off the boat. She split from the whole program. How did that happen? What did she see here that first operation? Eighteen years old. If you joined the green berets, there was no way you'd ever get above colonel. Rachel knew what she was giving up. The more I read and began to understand, the more I admired her. Her family and friends couldn't understand it. And they couldn't talk her out of it. She had to apply three times, and she put up with a ton of shit, but when she threatened to resign, they gave it to her. They must've thought she was some far-out old teen humping it over the course. I did it when I was thirteen, it damn near wasted me. A tough son of a gun. She finished it. She could've gone for general, but she went for herself instead._"


	7. Lazzaro!

The PBR is gliding up the river. Chef is sitting in the back of the boat, writing a letter. As he reads to himself outloud as he writes. "Dear Eva. Today was really a new one. Almost got eaten by a tiger. Really un-believable, you know? We're taking this guy, Captain Uno, up river, but he hasn't told us yet where we're taking him..."

Clean is playing a portable radio. Nigel is seated looking through the dossier, documents from the TND. A song finishes on the Radio and the host speaks. "Good morning, Vietnam. I'm Teen Specialist Zack Johnson on TNDR It's about eighty-two degrees in downtown Saigon right now, also very humid..." Clean is standing on the front of the boat. "...and we have an important message for all Agents who are living offbase from the Kid mayor of Saigon. He's like you to hand the laundry up indoors, instead of the windowsills. The mayor wants you to keep Saigon beautiful. And now, here's another blast from the past going out to Big Sam, who's all alone out there with the First Battalion, 35th Infantry, and dedicated by the Fire Team and their groovy C.O. The Rolling Stones, "Satisfaction."" The music comes on, Clean starts dancing, keeping time to "Satisfaction." The others cheer him.

"Work out, Clean! Get down, bubba!"

Nigel turns to see that Lance is water skiing off the back of the boat. Chef is at the helm and sees this as well. "Hang on, Lance!" The boat passes a Vietnamese fishing boat, capsizing it in its wake.

Nigel has found himself in a corner in the boat. He looks to the front where Clean is moving and dancing to the music and to the rear where Lance is water-skiing before looking down to his dossier, with its odd assortment of photographs, reports, and letters. "_"Commitment and Counterinsurgency" by Rachel Mackenzie. "As long as our officers and troops perform operations of duty limited to one year, they will remain dilettantes in war, and tourists in Vietnam. As long as cold beer, hot food, rock 'n' roll, and all the other amenities remain expected norm, our conduct of the war will only gain impotence. We need fewer men, and better. If they were committed, this war could be won with a fourth of our present force."_"

* * *

The Chief is at the helm. He takes off his sunglasses and looks straight ahead. Two PBR's coming straight at them. The lead PBR is headed on a collision course. Clean looks forward. "Shit. Chicken time."

Lance also looks forward. "Who is that? What's going on?"

All are looking forward. The Chief grabs the loud-hailer. "Is that you, Lazzaro?"

Chef shouts to the Chief. "Don't chicken out."

The lead PBR keeps coming on in a game of "chicken," the rock music blaring from its speakers. Then it swerves at the last possible moment and fishtails past. One of its Crewmen moons the crew. Lance, Chef, and Clean shout back and give them the finger.

The other PBR fishtails past also, causing a lot of turbulence in the water. The crew gives the boys the finger, then one of them throws a smoke bomb. It lands on the canopy. The smoke bomb spews out its yellow smoke, and suddenly the canopy catches on fire. "Fire on the canopy!" The Chief shouts.

Chef grabs a fire extinguisher and tries to snuff the fire out. "I got it! Get out of there!"

Chief keeps roaring down the river as the others continue to fight the fire. Finally they get it out. Nigel stands there dumbfounded.

The PBR continues down the river. Lance gives a handful of palm leaves to Chef, who is sitting up on top of the canvas roof, trying to patch up the hole that was caused by the fire. Clean has a pair of drumsticks and is beating out a drum rhythm, really getting into it. Nigel studies the dossier; some photos and Vietnamese I.D. cards. "_Late summer, autumn 2013. Rachel's patrol into the highlands is coming under frequent bush. The camp started falling apart. November. Rachel orders assassinations of three Vietnamese men and one woman. Two of the men were colonels in the AND. Enemy activity in his old sector dropped off to nothing. Guess he must have hit the right four people._"

Nigel thinks and can hear the echoes of what the General and the Colonel said in his briefing. "_He joined the Special Forces, and after that he..._"

"_The TND tried one last time to bring her back into the fold. And if she'd pulled over, it would have been forgotten._"

"_...unsound._"

"_But she kept going. And she kept winning it her way._"

"_...with this Montagnard army of hers._"

"_And then they called me in._"

"_...like a god, and follow every order, however ridiculous._"

"_They lost her. She was gone. Nothing but rumors and random intelligence, mostly from captured Adults. The Adults knew her name by now, and they were scared of her. She and her men were playing hit and run all the way into Cambodia._"

Clean's drum rhythm is annoying Nigel. He puts a map back into his dossier, rises, and looks at Clean, pissed, then looks to the Chief. The Chief looks at Clean. "Clean." Clean stops drumming and moves away.

Nigel moves closer to the Chief. "How long has that kid been on this boat?"

"Seven months."

"He's really specializing in busting my balls."

"Very possibly, Captain, he thinks the same of you."

"Oh, yeah? What do you think, Chief?" Clean gives Nigel the finger behind his back.

The Chief looks at Nigel angrily. "I don't think. My orders say I'm not supposed to know where I'm taking this boat, so I don't. But one look at you and I know it's gonna be hot, wherever it is."

Nigel comes into the cabin, looks at the Chief. "We're going up river, about seventy-five clicks past the Do Lung bridge."

The Chief thinks for a second. "That's Cambodia, Captain."

"That's classified. We're not supposed to be in Cambodia, but that's where I'm going. You just get me close to my destination, and I'll cut you loose."

"All right, Captain."


	8. Their Timid Lying Morality

The PBR is moving down the river. Nigel is studying the dossier, holding a letter from Rachel to her brother. "_"Dear Brother. I'm afraid that both you and our mother will have worried at not hearing from me during the past weeks, but my situation here has become a difficult one. I have been officially accused of murder by the TND. The alleged victims were four Adult double agents. We spent months uncovering then and accumulating evidence. When absolute proof was completed, we acted. We acted like soldiers. The charges are unjustified. They are, in fact, and under the circumstances of this war, quite completely insane."_"

The boat moves past some dead TNDAF Pilots. Their bodies are lying in the water, on the bank, and in the trees, all torn apart and bloody. There is smoke and debris all around. Nigel continues reading the letter. "_"In a war, there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments for ruthless action. What is often called ruthless, but may, in many circumstances, be only clarity. Seeing clearly what there is to be done, and doing it directly, quickly, awake."_"

They come upon a burning SCAMPER, which has crashed in one of the trees on the shore. This explains the dead TNDAF bodies. The Chief picks up the radio phone, calling to headquarters. "Request-dust off. Three, maybe four KIAs."

Nigel continues reading the letter. "_"I will trust you tell our mother what you choose about this letter. As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned. I am beyond their timid, lying morality, and so I am beyond caring. You have all my faith. Your loving sister."_" Nigel looks closely at a photo of a silhouetted teenage girl with the caption "Photo believed to be Col. R. Mackenzie."

* * *

Chef is at the back of the boat giving Clean a hard time about girls. Clean keeps telling Chef to leave him alone. Chef won't let up. Lance is up at the front of the boat ignoring all this. He is painting his face with brown and green camouflage greasepaint. It is quite ornate-almost psychedelic. He holds a compact in his hand. Chef still won't lay off on Clean so the Chief finally intervenes. "Chef, he said lay off! Knock it off! Give him a break! And give your jaws a rest. And this ain't the army! You are a sailor. So get out of that frizzly army-looking shirt and stop eating that sugar, you hear me?" He looks back to Lance. "Lance, what's with all the green paint?"

"Camouflage."

"How's that?"

"So they can't see you. They're everywhere. Chief."

The Chief starts to make a response before realizing that logically Lance is right. "Uh-huh. I want you to stay awake up there, man. You got a job to do." Lance turns and nods his head to the Chief.

The Chief steers the PBR up river and around a bend. He sees something ahead, shouts to the crew. "Sampan off the port bow. Sampan off the port bow. Let's take a look." Chief blares the PBR's siren at the boat letting them know to stop. "Lance, bring them in. Clean, on the 60. Chef, get a 16. Clean, get on that 60!" Lance jumps up from his hammock, grabs his M16. Clean shuts off his radio, jumps up and moves to the M60 machine gun.

By this time Nigel has moved up next to the Chief, wondering what is going on. "What's up, Chief?"

"A junk boat, Captain. We're gonna take a routine check."

"Let's forget routine now, and let them go."

"These boats are running supplies in this delta, Captain. I'm gonna take a look."

"Chief, my mission's got priority here. Hell, you wouldn't even be in this part of the river, if it wasn't for me."

"Until we reach your destination, Captain, you're just on for the ride." Nigel realizes that this is a ploy by the Chief to establish his authority. Nothing is going to stop him.

The PBR slides alongside the sampan. Three nervous Vietnamese men and one Vietnamese teen girl look up from the baskets of rice, mangoes, and fish. "All right, come on, let's bring it over. Look in that forward hooch. Bring the people out of there. By this time the third man has crossed forward and joined the others.

Chef is very anxious to get the inspection over with. "Hurry up! Move it! Can cuoc?" They hand their ID cards to Chef.

The Chief sees Clean looking like he's dousing off. "Keep your eyes open, Clean."

Clean regain attention and grabs his 60 again. "I got you Chief."

Nigel just sits down, resigned to this show of the Chief's authority.

Chef looks at them and nods his approval. He hands them to Chief doesn't look with approval. "Board it and search it."

Chef doesn't move. "There ain't nothing on it, Chief."

"Board it and search it."

Once again Chef doesn't move. "Just baskets and ducks. Bananas. There ain't nothing on it."

CHIEF

The Chief starts to get angry. "Go on it and search it."

Chef doesn't move a bit. "Just a goat. Some fish. Bunch of vegetables."

The Chief finally gets pissed off, he turns and screams at Chef. "Get on that boat!"

Chef doesn't move and yells back. "There's nothing on it, man!"

The Chief yells at Chef as loud as he could. "Get on that boat!"

Chef starts down into the Vietnamese sampan. He is really pissed off. He shoves the Vietnamese men out of the way. The Chief watches as Chef goes through the routine of examining the sampan and what it carries. He is very nervous as he looks in all the baskets. "Pigs! Mangoes! What's in the rice bag? Rice! What a huge surprise!"

"Look in there, Chef!"

"Fish! More coconuts. Rice. Here's more rice."

"What's in that vegetable basket?"

Chef moves deeper into the sampan. He looks at the Vietnamese girl that is sitting on a yellow can. "Can couc! Come on! Get out of there." He grabs her and finally pulls her out of the interior of the cabin. He moves it and starts looking around.

"Check that vegetable basket."

"All right!" One of the Vietnamese men starts to protest. This time Clean points the 60 at him. "Shut up!"

Chef again finds no contraband. "There ain't nothing in here."

"What's in the boxes? Look in that tin can. That rusty can."

"Just rice, that's all! There ain't nothing in it!"

"Check that yellow can. She was sitting on it. What's in it?"

Chef starts for it. All of a sudden, the girl moves. Clean opens up with the M60. She is blown apart, falling back on the deck. In an instant, they all open fire. One of the Vietnamese men is blown into the water, and the others are gunned down in their tracks. All of them continue to fire their rifles and guns wildly, yelling obscenities. Nigel has his .45 out but does not shoot.

Chef is laying in the middle of the boat. Not hurt, but traumatized "Let's kill them all!"

"Chef?"

Chef has moved to the yellow can that the Vietnamese girl was sitting on. He opens the lid and checks what she had hidden. "Look what she was hiding. What she was running for?" He reaches inside of the can, and pulls out a puppy. "A puppy."

Lance moves down to Chef's level. "Gimme that dog!"

"No, you're not gonna get it!"

"Give me the dog!"

Lance grabs the dog from him, kicking Chef back. Chef throws a mango at him. The Vietnamese girl, still alive and bleeding, moves behind Chef. The Chief sees her moving. "Chef, she's moving behind you. She's alive. Check her out."

Chef turns and bends down to her. "Come on, Clean, give me a hand! "Clean jumps down into the sampan. He and Chef pick up the girl and carry her to the edge of the boat. "She's not dead. She's moving." He looks down at her. "Let's take it easy. Take it easy. Slow down and take it easy."

The Chief looks at Chef. "Is she breathing, Chef?"

"She's hurt. She's bleeding."

"Bring her onboard. We're taking her to VTND.

Nigel looks at the girl and then to Chief. "What are you talking about?"

The Chief looks at Nigel and attempts to assert his authority again. "We're taking her to some friendlies. She's wounded, she's not dead."

Nigel hold his .45. Looks down at Chef and the girl. "Get out of there, Chef." Before anybody can react, Nigel aims and shoots the girl with his .45. She falls dead in Chef's arms. Nigel turns and looks at the Chief. "I told you not to stop. Now let's go."


	9. It's Beautiful

The boat moves up the river. Nigel is thinking about his earlier actions at the Sampan. "_It was a way we had over here of living with ourselves. We'd cut them in half with a machine gun, and give them a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw of them, the more I hated liars. Those boys were never gonna look at me the same way again, but I felt like I knew one or two things about how Rachel thought._"

* * *

The boat edges in toward a wrecked bridge in the distance. Along the banks are sandbagged fortifications with the TND soldiers. There is a bright fire burning uncontrolled in the distance, in fact there are several, flame and sparks from welding on the bridge momentarily light up the night. There is sporadic gunfire and flares arc through the sky above the bridge. "_Do Lung bridge was the last army outpost on the Nung River. Beyond it there was only Rachel._"

Lance and Chef are at the front of the boat looking at the spectacle. Chef sees that Lance is staring in awe. "Hey, Lance, what do you think?"

"It's beautiful." Lance says with a strangely monotone voice.

"What's the matter with you? You're acting kind of weird."

"You know that last bag of brown sugar I was saving?"

"Yeah."

"I ate it."

"You ate brown sugar? Far out." With this Chef moves to the back with Clean.

The Chief powers the boat forward, as Nigel and Clean watch in awe. Everywhere are wrecked boats, parts of jeeps sticking out of the water-a smashed SCAMPER on the banks. The bridge is in a state of siege. Mortars and rockets arc through the night indiscriminately and rip through the nearby jungle. Light automatic weapon fire is heard occasionally.

As the PBR edges forward, soldiers run up through the water, trying to get aboard. One soldier is carrying some luggage and an M16. He splashes into the water, in a mad dash for freedom. "Take me home!"

Chief takes out his M16 and points it at the soldier."Get away from this boat."

The Soldier moves away. "You'll get what you deserve!"

He and the others are left behind as the PBR continues forward. Nigel sees a young lieutenant kneeling on a platform that juts out into the water. He is holding a small strobe light, trying to signal the PBR down. He is holding a large mail bag and a pouch in the other hand. Nigel motions toward the shore. The Chief turns the boat towards the Lieutenant. "Is there a Captain Uno on board?"

"Yeah! Who's that?" As the boat crosses to a stop, Lance swings the spotlight onto the Lieutenant.

"Lieutenant Carlson, sir." He squints and turns away from the spotlight. "Get that light off me!" Lance swings the light off him, as Nigel squats down on the bow of the boat.

"I was sent here from Nah Trang with these three days ago, sir. Expected you here a little sooner." He hands Nigel a plastic bag with maximum security markings. Nigel takes it. He also takes the mail pouch."This is mail for the boat. You don't know how happy this makes me, sir."

"Why?"

"Now I can get out of here, if I can find a way." He turns and splashes off into the darkness. Then stops and looks back. "You're in the asshole of the world, Captain!" He salutes, then turns and moves away. Nigel hops off the side of the boat into the mud, moving up toward the shore.

The Chief looks surprised. "Captain, where you going?"

"To see if I can find some fuel and get some information. Pick me up on the other side of the bridge."

The Chief to his men on the boat. "Somebody go with him." Then he looks at Chef. "Chef?"

Chef doesn't move, not wanting to go. No one budges, then Lance volunteers. "I'll go. I want to go." He picks up the puppy and an M16, then jumps over the side onto the shore.


	10. Go Get The Roach

As Nigel and Lance walk across an open area, they are lit by the battle in the background. Lance looks up and around the embankment and along a barbed wire on the edge of the road. Shells scream overhead. Lance just stands looking down on the phantasmagoric strings of the lights, the smoke, and the fires.

Nigel jumps down into a trench. He sees a soldier crouched, holding his buddy, who is crying uncontrollably. "Where can I find the C.O.?"

"You came right to it, son of a bitch!"

Nigel looks up to see Lance still looking at all the pyrotechnics. "Lance! Get down here!" He turns and jumps down into the trench. Nigel turns back to the soldier in the trench. You still got a commanding officer here?

"Beverly Hills."

"What?"

"Right up the road there's a concrete bunker called Beverly Hills. Where the hell else do you think it would be?"

Nigel turns and moves away from the two soldiers. Lance follows. They proceed down the long trench. They pass a group of TND Soldiers. Suddenly Nigel trips over a body, and falls right into a mud puddle. The body stirs. "You stepped in my face!"

Lance laughs a little. "We thought you were dead."

"Well, you thought wrong, damnit!"

They come to another gun emplacement, where two soldiers are at a fifty-caliber machine gun. The Gunner blasts away into the night, walking and swearing at Adult. The Spotter is feeding the bullets into the gun. Psychedelic guitar music plays on a portable radio. "You think you're so bad, huh? HAHAHAHA" The Gunner says wildly while firing at the Adults.

Nigel watches for a while, then shouts over to him. "What are you shooting at, soldier?"

"Adults! What the hell do you think I'm shooting at?" He turns to see that he is talking to an officer. "I'm sorry, sir. There are Adults out there by the wire. But I think I killed them all."

The Spotter laughs at him. "You ain't shot shit! Listen!" The enemy's yelling continues.

The Gunner hears this yelling. " Oh, shit, he's trying to call his friends. Send up a flare."

The Spotter reaches over and picks up a flare pistol, and fires a flare into the air. The gunner starts blasting away again. "You think you so bad, huh? You think you so bad?" He stops firing. The yelling continues.

The Spotter laughs again. "They're all dead, stupid. There's one still alive underneath them bodies."

Nigel looks at both of them. "Who's the commanding officer here?"

The Gunner turns at him with surprise. "Ain't you?" Then he continues firing. "You think you so bad? I got something for your ass! I got something for you now!"

Lance climbs up on top of the sandbags with the puppy and looks at the pyrotechnics. Explosions go off all around him.

The Spotter and the Gunner are still arguing about the bodies. "There's nothing but bodies, man!" Then the Gunner has an idea. "Go get the Roach, man. Go get the Roach!" The Spotter moves down the trench, to where a tall lanky soldier wearing all sorts of beads and trinkets leans against the ditch, sleeping. "Roach! Roach!" The Roach gets up somewhat annoyed, but very cool, and saunters up toward the machine gun.

Nigel looks over and sees Lance up on top of the sandbags. "Lance!" Lance climbs down back into the trench.

The Roach and the Spotter move back to the machine gun, where the Gunner waits. The Roach turns off the radio, sits down, and listens. "Do you hear them?"

"Yeah."

"You need a flare?"

"No." He continues to listen hearing the obscenities that the far out adult is saying. "He's close, man. He's real close." The Roach opens the breech of his shotgun-like weapon, plunks a big slug into it. He snaps it closed, then turns and wraps the strap around his arm. He points the weapon up into the air listens to the yelling, calculating, then fires. The grenade whistles off into the night. There is a sharp explosion that cuts off the scream. Then the thud of bodies.

Nigel looks at the Roach. "Hey, soldier. Do you know who's in command here?"

The Roach looks at Nigel with a smile on his face. "Yeah." Then he turns and walks back to the ditch and back to sleep.

* * *

The PBR stands in the shadows. Chef, the Chief, and Clean are waiting for Nigel and Lance. Shells whistle by and crash in the distance as the welding continues on the bridge. Clean looks up and sees a direct hit on the bridge. Two Soldiers ate blown off some of the towers and into the water. "Holy shit! Yo, Chief, two guys just got blown off that bridge,"

The Chief sees the fear in Clean's eyes. "You hold on, man. You're gonna be okay."

Clean turns and moves to the bow, where Chef is kneeling by the mail bag. "What's that?"

"Mail, man!"

The Chief looks back. "Later on the mail! Watch them trees."

Nigel and Lance climb back onto the boat, loaded down with supplies. They move down into the PBR. "There's no diesel fuel, but I picked up some ammo. Let's move out."

"Did you find the C.O., Captain?"

"There's no C.O. here. Let's just get going."

"Which way, Captain?"

"You know which way, Chief."

"You're on your own, Captain. Still want to go on? Like this bridge. We build it every night, The Adults blow it right back up again, just so the generals can say the road's open. Think about it...who cares?"

"Just get us up river!" The Chief turns the boat and takes off down river. Behind the boat the Bridge can be seen. The battle intensifies more explosions then finally the bridge fully collapses in an amazing show of firepower and pyrotechnics.


	11. Clean

It is the next morning. The PBR continues on its journey up river. Chef distributes mail from the mail bag. "Shit, you got another one, Clean!"

Clean looks at the package that Chef handed him. Then thinks and looks back at Chef. "Wait a minute. Is that it?"

"That's it for you." Chef turns to Lance. "Lance? Mr. L. B. Johnson, there you go."

Lance takes the letter. "Far out, man! All right, I been waiting for this one."

"I got a box from Eva."

Lance begins reading the letter to him. ""Lance, I'm fine. Sue and I went to Disneyland. Sue skinned her knee."" Then he begins responding to the letter. "How could I forget, man? Beautiful!" Then continues reading. ""There could never be a place like Disneyland, or could there? Let me know." Jim, it's here. It really is here."

Nigel has opened the Top Secret pouch and is reading the letter inside. "_"There has been a new development regarding your mission, which we must now communicate to you. Months ago, a girl was ordered on a mission, which was identical to yours. We have reason to believe that she is now operating with Colonel Mackenzie. Saigon was carrying her MIA for her family's sake, but they assumed she was dead. Then they intercepted a letter he tried to send to her brother."_" Nigel looks down at the letter she tried to send. It was just a few bold words on a flimsy piece of paper: "Forget it. I'm never coming back." "_Captain Fanny Fulbright. She was with Kurtz._"

Lance has taken some smoke bombs and is popping them open. Purple smoke begins to pour out. "Purple Haze! Look!"

The Chief looks back at Lance. "Lance, put that smoke away."

Clean is opening his package. "I got a tape from my mom."

Lance is still playing with the smoke bomb. "Chief, rainbow reality, man. Get a good whiff." The colored smoke is getting in everybody's eyes. The whole boat is enveloped. "Hot potato! Hot potato" Then chucks it off the boat.

Clean's tape from his mom begins playing. "...and that's much more that I can say for some of your friends. If this tape is any good, I will have Dad and the family send you a tape of their own."

Suddenly streams of tracers whip out of the jungle at them, other bullets smash and ricochet off the deck; glass shatters, everybody jumps to their battle stations. Lance jumps into the turret of the twin fifties and starts blasting away at the jungle. The Chief tries to power the PBR out of the ambush. Clean jumps up behind the M60 machine gun and starts firing. Nigel uses his M16.

Everything is confusion, yelling, gunfire, and the thud of bullets ripping into the PBR fiberglass hull. Lance's guns return fire. He screams obscenities as he vents an almost superhuman violence. Nobody quite knows where the fire is coming from.

The Chief steers and accelerates erratically, trying to dodge the fire fight.

Clean is firing the M60...suddenly it jams. As he rises up behind the shield he is riddled by machine gun fire. The bullets blast into his throat, chest, stomach...he falls to the deck.

Nobody has seen that he is down yet. They keep firing their guns into the jungle. The Chief throttles forward, the boat surges ahead and slams across the river. It is all over quickly.

The Chief turns and sees that Clean has been hit and is down on the deck. "Chef! Take care of Clean! Captain, Clean's hit! He's hit!"

Lance climbs out of the gun turret and looks around for the little puppy. "Where'd the dog go? Where's the dog? We gotta go back and get the dog!"

Chef crawls to Clean and turns him over. Sees that he is dead. "Clean! Hey! Bubba, you can't die! Hey, bubba!" Clean lying dead, flat on his back. The Chief turns him over and holds his wrist to try and take his pulse. Clean's mother can still be heard from the tape. "...do the right thing, stay out of trouble, and bring your hiney home ask with good grades ...'cause we love you very much. Love, Mom."

The Chief is holding Clean's hand and crying.

* * *

The boat under power, moving through fog. They pass downed SCAMPERs, wreckage, and burning fires. Nigel is sitting on the bow, looking out into the distance as though he sees something. He motions to the Chief. "Hold on. Throw me the glasses." He looks through the binoculars. In the distance, he can make out a plantation. The dock has been devastated by years of fighting. There is a heavy fog everywhere. Up on the hill above the dock sits a large house; it does not look heavily damaged.

Nigel picks up his M16 and moves to the front of the boat. The Chief has also seen the wrecked plantation. "Lance. Get the 16 on the bow. Chef, on the 60."

The Chief pulls the PBR slowly up to the wrecked dock. Nigel jumps off with his M16 in hand and cautiously looks around.

He walks into a wrecked barn. He comes out of the side and makes his way back to Chef and Lance, who are standing on the dock. The Chief yells out from the boat. "Lance, cover the Captain."

Suddenly from out of the fog a voice shouts out. "vous êtes entouré. Lâchez vos armes." Chef recognizes the language they are speaking and shouts out. "ne tirez pas, ne tirez pas" Then he looks at the others. "They're French." Then he turns and shouts again. "Je tombais mon arme"

Chef and Lance start to put down their M16s, the Chief shouts out furiously from the boat. "Chef! Pick up that weapon! Pick it up! Stand fast!"

Chef continues to shout to the French. "Nous sommes TND, nous sommes amis!" The French voice calls out once more. "Lâchez vos armes"

As Nigel walks down the dock, French soldiers appear out of the fog, totally surrounding them. Nigel stops in front of them, realizing there is no way out, and raises his rifle in surrender. They all drop their weapons. More soldiers step out. Chef continues to call out. "Nous sommes TND. Nous sommes amis. Nous sommes amis" More French and Cambodian soldiers a step out of the fog onto the dock. They move forward cautiously. It is strange. It is like meeting up with a group of soldiers from the French Adult War. They all bear older automatic weapons and suspicion in their eyes. Another French Teen joins the group. This is obviously the Commander. He is about 25, He obviously went rouge with the rest of his family and unit and they all live on this plantation. He and Nigel look at each other.

Nigel speaks first. "We lost one of our men."

"We French always pay respect to the dead of our allies. You're all welcome. My name is Hubert DeMarais. This is my family's plantation. It has been such for 15 years, and it will be such until we are all dead."


	12. Tyrone Miller

The group is assembled. There is a platoon of Cambodian soldiers standing by an open grave, Sergeant Lafavre in front of them. "Pour ma commande! Attention! Armes sur l'épaule! Armes présents!" The platoon present their weapons, as Clean's body is carried toward the grave. The bugler brings the bugle up to his lips and plays "Taps."

Nigel looks up and sees something on the balcony of the house. A Older Teen, dressed in white, is on the balcony. She has been watching the ceremony. She turns back into the house.

The Chief bends down and picks up the tattered TND flag, which is on Clean's body. Lance places Clean's tape recorder on the body. The body is lowered into the grave. The Chief turns to Nigel. "Captain, accept the flag of Tyrone Miller, on behalf of a grateful force." He hands the folded flag to Nigel.


	13. A Voluntary Mistake!

They have set up a table for the crew, and with some of their own younger soldiers. The table is headed by Sergeant LaFavre, who is already seriously into the wine.

A waiter comes to the table and stops next to Chef. He is holding a plate full of European style food. Chef's face lights up as he regards the wonderful European-style food. "This food is really wonderful, isn't it? The wine, the sauces. I can't believe it." He turns over to LaFarvre. "Can I speak with the chef?"

"The chef speaks only Vietnamese."

"No kidding. He cooks like this and he can't even speak French?"

Lance has been loading up on food from the waiter's plate. As the waiter moves away from him, Lance reaches across the table for the bread and accidentally knocks over a glass. Lance realizes he is eating like an animal and sits back down.

On a higher level there is a more elaborate table set, where the DeMarais family is dining with Nigel. Nigel is sitting next to DeMarais, who is at the head of the table. Christian, Anne Marie, their old blind uncle, Claudine, a man who seems to be a tutor, and Philippe are all seated, listening to one of the children, who is reciting a poem. The other children stand nearby listening. The child stumbles through the poem. Hubert chuckles a little. "Vous avez encore besoin d'étudier avec Monsieur Robert. Allons-y. Pas trop mal. Allez au lit tout le monde maintenant." The children kiss their parents good night, and run out of the room. Hubert turns to Nigel. "This is Baudelaire. It is a very cruel poem for children, but they need it, because our world sometimes is very cruel." He reaches behind him and picks up a plaque, hands it to Nigel. "As you can see. Attack repels by the family." Philippe interrupts. "Just for this war" Hubert points to specific times they repelled attacks on their home. "Adults, fifty-eight. Teens, twelve."

Nigel sees a point on the plaque Hubert didn't point to. "TND, six?"

"Yes, well, there were perhaps mistakes."

The Teen Nigel saw earlier, has come down the stairs and moved into the dining Room. Hubert looks up and sees her. "Roxanne, vous étiez curieux de voir ces TND, n'est-ce pas?"

"Non, je n'étais faim."

She stops in front of an empty chair next to Philippe. Nigel rises to greet her. Hubert speaks. "Puis-je présenter capitaine Uno, il est d'un régiment de parachutistes."

She smiles and indicates for Nigel to sit down. "Captain."

She sits down. There is an uneasy silence. "Un ange passe ..."

Hubert laughs. "... Disons boucher le! Vous souvenez-vous de cette histoire à Paris, lorsque le baron dit, "nous allons couper l'ange?""

"Je ne pense pas que ce soit le sujet ce soir."

Hubert looks and sees that Nigel has a confused look on his face. "I'm sorry, Captain. It was just a little story. People starving during the Second Adult War. They are all around the table, and there was a silence, somebody say "An angel is passing by." So somebody say "Let's eat it!"

Nigel laughs and then takes a serious look. "How long can you possibly stay here?"

"We stay forever."

"No, no, I mean, why don't you go back home to France?"

"This is our home, Captain."

"Sooner or later, you're -"

"No!..." Hubert interjects angrily. Roxanne interrupts, saying something to him in French. He silences her. Then turns back to Nigel. "You don't understand our mentality! The French officer mentality! At first, we lose in Second Adult War. I don't say that you ATND win, but we lose. In Dine Bien Phu, we lose! In Algeria, we lose! In Indochina, we lose. But here, we don't lose! This piece of earth, we keep it! We will never lose it! Never!"

The Old Blind Uncle at the other end of the table speaks, as Claudine cuts his food for him and feeds him. "And now you take French place, and the Vietnamese Adults fight you. And what can you do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Hubert speaks again. "The Vietnamese Adults are very intelligent. You never know what they think. The Russian Adults who help them, "Come and give us their money, we are all Adultists. Chinese Adults, come and give us guns. We're all brothers." They hate the Chinese! Maybe they hate the American less that the Russian and the Chinese. If tomorrow the Vietnamese are Adult controlled, they will be Vietnamese Adultists. And this is something that you will never understand, you American."

Philippe goes and picks up an egg from the basket, returns to the table. "Look, this is the truth..." He breaks the egg in his hand, the contents dribble out. "An egg, the white leaves, but the yellow stays!" He turns and walks away.

Hubert calls out for Philippe to stay. "Allez, restez avec nous. Ce qui se passe?"

Philippe calls back as he walks away. "Ils ne veulent pas faire face à la vérité!" He points to the dining room then turns and exits, LaFavre is playing his accordion, walks toward the dining room.

Christian ,another man around Hubert's age who must've been with him for years, speaks. "When I was in Saigon, I spoke to an TND politician, and he explained it very well. He said, "Look, Yesterday it was Korea, today Vietnam, tomorrow Thailand, the Philippines, then maybe Europe.""

LaFavre enters, playing the accordion. Christian continues with his story. "Come on, why not Europe? Look what happened in Czechoslovakia recently. The Adultists took over the country. And even before the Second Adult War, the ATND knew exactly what was going on! They don't want the Adultists to take over!" He then turns to LaFavre who is starting to annoy him. "LaFavre! LaFavre, arrêter"

LaFavre takes a strange tone. "All you TND are shit."

Christian looks at LaFavre. "They are fighting. Fighting for freedom."

"Freedom? Bullshit. French bullshit. American bullshit. Dine Bien Phu, that's serious! All soldier know they are already dead." He turns to Nigel. "You know anything about Dine Bien Phu?"

"Yeah, I know."

Hubert speaks again. "No, you don't. Not really."

The Tutor speaks to Nigel. "A military mistake."

Hubert interrupts him. "A mistake? A voluntary mistake! Voluntary!"

LaFavre gives his personal incite to the Battle of Dine Bien Phu. "All the soldiers knew, we knew we would be dead."

Hubert speaks more about the battle. "The generals and the colonels believe it's impossible for the Adults to get the cannon up there in the mountain. But they do. Then they wait for the rain to come. When it comes, no COOLBUS can fly there, and our paratroopers jump at ninety meters! I mean, you know, ninety meters! Seventy meters! That's crazy! Nobody in the world can do that! And they only do that to be dead with their friends. The French TND sacrificed. Sacrificed by politicians safe at home. They put the TND in an impossible situation where they couldn't win!"

Christian leans over to Nigel. "Why don't you Americans learn from us, from our mistakes? My God, with your army, your strength, your power...you could win if you wanted to!"

LaFavre leaves and he falls down some steps that lead out of the dining room. Hubert looks over at him and then to Christian. "Soyez gentil et aider ce pauvre LaFavre qui est tombé, s'il vous plaît."

Before he leaves Christian looks at Nigel. "You can win!"

He rises and goes to help the sergeant. As they leave, his wife Anne-Marie sits there nervously, then rises, excusing herself.

Hubert, The Tutor, and The Old Uncle get into an argument in French about Adultism. The Tutor eventually grows extremely angry and leaves. "Captain, good night." The tutor gets up and walks out. The old man continues babbling, as Claudine helps him up. "Allez, nous partons."

The Uncle gets up with Claudine's help. "So we can be friends, we are agreed." They exit, Claudine consoling him.

Now only Roxanne, Nigel, and Hubert are at the table. "See, Captain, when my father and my uncle came here, there was nothing. Nothing. The Vietnamese were nothing. So we worked hard, very hard, and brought the rubber from Brazil, and then plant it here. We took the Vietnamese, work with them, make something, something out of nothing. So when you ask me why we want to stay here, Captain, we want to stay here because it's ours, it belongs to us. It keeps out family together. We fight for that! While you Americans, you are fighting for the biggest nothing in history. I'm sorry Captain. I will see if your men needs any help to repair your boat, so that you can go on with your war. Bonne nuit Roxanne."

He rises from the table and moves out of the room. Nigel and Roxanne are left alone at the table. Roxanne speaks. "I apologize for my family, Captain. We have all loots much here. Hubert, his wife, and two sons."

"I understand."

"You are tired of the war. I can see it in your face. It was the same in the eyes of the soldiers of our war. We called them "Les Soldat Perdus." The Lost Soldiers. She rises and moves to the living room.

"I have to see about my men and..."

"Will you go back after the war to America?"

"No."

"Then you're like us, your home is here." She walks farther out onto the terrace, sits down on a sofa, with her back to the river below. Nigel follows her and stands next to her at the railing. He can see men working on the PBR down below at the dock. "Do you know why you can never step into the same river twice?"

"Yeah. Because it's always moving."

She walks away. "Bonne nuit Capitaine"


	14. The Chief

Mist swells up around the river as the boat moves into an obscure Fog. Nigel is up front on the bow, trying to see what's ahead. The Chief is at the helm. "Can't see nothing. We're stopping."

Nigel jumps up and moves to the Chief."You're not authorized to stop this boat, Chief."

"I said I can't see a thing, Captain! I'm stopping this boat! I ain't risking no more lives!"

"I'm in command here, damnit. You'll do what I say!"

The Chief realises that Nigel is in command and shouts for Chef. "You see anything, Chef?"

Chef is at the back of the boat behind the 50. He searches the banks. "Why don't they attack, man?

Lance has his head back and is wailing eerily.

All of the boys on the PBR are at their guns searching the shoreline. "_She was close. She was real close. I couldn't see her yet, but I could feel her, as if the boat were being sucked up river and the water was flowing back into the jungle. Whatever was going to happen, it wasn't going to be the way they called it back in Nah Trang._" Suddenly the air is filled with arrows, an avalanche of arrows in the sky. They come down clattering on the deck. Chef opens fire. Arrows everywhere, primitive spears flung expertly.

Lance is in the front turret, arrows whiz around him. He turns, smiles, picks one up, looks at it, breaks it in half. He quits firing and makes an arrow-through-the-head gag.

Chef is frightened, but almost heroic, firing his weapon and shouting obscenities at the weird, dancing heathens attacking him. Arrows fall harmlessly around him.

Thousands of arrows in the sky come clattering down on the deck by the Chief.

Nigel is amazed but immediately he knows they're harmless, done more to frighten than to injure. But still, he's never seen anything like this in all his time in Vietnam, or for the TND and he knows in his gut that it is still another message from Rachel. He moves to Chef, tries to make him stop firing. "Chef! Chef, it's okay! Quit firing! They're just little arrows. Cut it out! Quiet!" He turns to the Chief. "Chief, tell them to hold their fire! They're just little sticks! They're trying to scare us!"

The Chief picks up his M16 and turns to Nigel wildly. "You got us in this mess, and now you can't get us out, because you don't know where the hell you're going, do you?" No Answer "Do you? You son of a bitch! You bastard!" The Chief leaves the wheel of the PBR and steps up on the deck with his M16.

Nigel looks at the unattended wheel then calls for Lance. "Lance, get the wheel!"

Lance moves to take over the wheel, as Chief starts firing his M16 madly. "You savages! Come and get it, you son of a bitches!" He drops the M16, moves to the M60 machine gun and starts firing madly again. Suddenly the Chief stops short, puzzled, a small droplet of blood lines his mouth. He looks down. The head of a spear has gone through his chest. He looks up at Nigel. "A spear?" He remains looking directly into Nigel's eyes, then starts to fall. Nigel catches him, and is pulled down to the deck by the weight of the Chief's body. The Chief looks up at him and suddenly reaches his hands for Nigel's throat, trying to pull Nigel down on top of the spearhead, trying to skewer him, and pull him along with him to death. They struggle, then suddenly the Chief dies.

* * *

The Boat is stopped on the side of the River. Lance is in the river cleaning the Chief's body of the blood. Nigel has jumped off the boat with all of his gear. Chef looks down at him. Nigel knows what Chef wants to know and finally decides to tell him. "My mission is to make it up to Cambodia. There's a Green Beret Colonel up there who's gone insane, and I'm supposed to kill her."

"That's typical! Shit! Typical Vietnam mission! I'm short and we gotta go up there so you can kill one of our own guys? That's great! That's just great, man! Shit! That's crazy! I thought you were going to blow up a bridge, or some railroad tracks, or something!"

Nigel and Chef watch Lance, as he tries to bury the Chief's body in the water. Nigel turns to leave. "That's all right."

"No, wait. We'll go together. On the boat. We'll go with you. We'll go out there. But on the boat, okay?" Lance gently floats the Chief off downstream. The Chief's body slowly disappears into the river.


	15. Zap 'em with your siren

The PBR moves up-river at night. The shore is lit up with burning torches and a large wooden structure in flames. The boat passes rows of skulls, flaming torches, and men impaled on poles. "_Part of me was afraid of what I would find, and what I would do when I got there. I knew the risks. Or imagined I knew. But the thing I felt the most, much stranger than fear, was the desire to confront her._" Lance is at the back of the boat, moving in a slow-motion Tai Chi.

* * *

The PBR is slowly moving. Lance and Nigel are standing on the bow of the boat. Chef is at the helm. The boys stare forward in amazement. Nigel has the binoculars around his neck. He brings them up to his eyes and looks. "Just keep moving Chef" He turns and sees that Lance has climbed into the turret. "Lance, keep your hands away from the guns."

Hundreds of Montagnard natives, body and faces painted white, of the most savage nature, but there is a purity about them. Men and boys stand passively on canoes side by side, blocking the river. There are also hundreds of other natives lining the shore on both sides, dressed in most ornate and primitive manner, in feathers, parts of birds and animals. Fires and dead bodies are everywhere.

The PBR moves closer and closer to the fantastic human wall blocking them. The natives accept the PBR, allowing it to pass into them with a sort of inevitability.

They see the temple. A magnificent fortified encampment built around the ruins of a former Cambodian civilization. The scale of this thing is enormous. Great enigmatic Cambodian faces carved out of stone from thousands of years ago. The fortress reaches out across the river where part of its ruins still stand on the opposite side nod on a small island. It's as though the river flowed into the great rams of the sphinx-like temple. Aligning the fortifications are concertina wire, automatic weapons emplacements. There is even wreckage of SCAMPERs as armed machine gun nests. It is a strange combination of the very modern and the very primitive. In this installation, they see families, fires, nomadic dwellings, several hundred of the most primitive Montagnard that ever existed. Some carry spears, occasionally other emerge from the jungle, scurrying around with the activity that the arrival of a stranger brings. The air is heavy with the weight of hundreds of automatic weapons. A think greasy smoke hangs from fires that burn and around the fort. Fresh shell craters indicate a recent battle. Near the dock, and everywhere else, there are tangled piles of corpses, half-submerged in the water, piles of bodies of the dead.

As the PBR moves up, a head suddenly is thrust into view. The head is that of a particularly wild, long-haired, stubble-faced teen. He has three or four camera bodies around his neck; a large bag stuffed with lenses and film. He is dressed in rags and tatters. He shouts out. "It's all right! It's all right! It's been approved!"

The PBR moves slowly toward the steps, as the man continues to shout out. Chef shouts back. "I ain't coming in there! Them bastards attacked us!"

"Zap 'em with your siren, man. Zap 'em with your siren."

Chef blows the siren on the PBR. The Natives react, never having heard one before; they scatter in all directions, running away scared. The photographer moves down onto the landing, directing the boat. "There's mines over there! Mines over there, too! And watch out, those damn monkeys bit you, I tell you.

The PBR crew are exhausted, staring at him through their mud splattered faces.

"Move it in right toward me." He jumps onboard the boat and immediately advances towards Lance. He shakes his hand, moves to the others, and shakes their hands as well. "I'm TND. TND Photojournalist. Hi, guys. Hi. TND. TND Photojournalist. It's all right." He looks at Chef. "And you got the soda, and that's what I've been dreaming of." Chef gives him a bottle of soda.

Nigel looks at the strange teen. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" He laughs. "I'm a photojournalist. I've covered the war since '08. I've been in Loas, Cambodia, 'Man... I'll tell you one thing. This boat is a mess, man."

Nigel gestures to the natives. "Who are all these people?"

"They think you've come to take her away. I hope that isn't true."

"Take who away?"

The Photojournalist gestures to the Temple. "Her! Colonel Mackenzie! These are all her children, man, as far as you can see. Hell, man, out here, we are all her children."

"Could we talk to Colonel Mackenzie?"

"Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel." He thinks for a second. "Well, you listen to her."

Nigel steps off the boat onto the steps. He turns and looks back at the Photojournalist. The Photojournalist speaks again. "The girl's enlarged my mind. She's a poet-warrior in a classic sense. I mean, sometimes she'll...well, you say hello to her, right? And she'll just walk right by you and she won't even notice you. And then suddenly she'll grab you and she'll throw you in a corner and she'll say 'Do you know that the 'if' is the middle word in 'life'? If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you.' I'm a little person, I'm a little person. She's a great person. 'I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas.'"

Nigel, incredulous, turns away to Lance. "Stay with the boat."

The Photojournalist sees Chef and Nigel start to walk up to the temple. "Don't go without me, okay. I want to get a picture."

They reach the top of the steps. Gradually the natives and savages show themselves-fierce and frightening, jungle fighters, mostly Montagnard. They wear only loincloths and bandoleers of ammunition. Their bodies are painted in strange patterns. Death is everywhere. The Photojournalist is still talking. "She can be terrible, and she can be mean, and she can be right. She's fighting the war. She's a great person. I mean, I wish I had words you know? I wish I had words. I could tell you something like, the other day she wanted to kill me."

Nigel looks back at him surprised. "Why did she want to kill you?"

"Because I took her picture. She said, 'If you take my picture again, I'm going to kill you.' And she meant it. See, just lay cool, lay cool. Lay back, dig it. She gets friendly again, she really does. But you don't judge the colonel. You don't judge the colonel like ordinary people."

They move closer and closer to the temple. The Photojournalist runs up ahead of Nigel and stops in front of the man with paler skins these are remnants of the Green Beret "A" Team that was under Rachel's command. The photojournalist starts clicking away with a camera, as Nigel moves toward a red haired TND Green Beret. Her face is darkened from dirt, battle smoke, matted mud, and grease. Nigel stops and looks at her. "86?" Fanny is silent. Then she and the other Berets slowly part, making way for Nigel. Nigel slowly moves through the group and sees the stone steps of the temple. Resting on the steps are freshly screed heads, blood washing down from them. They sit decorating the entrance to the temple like so many gruesome pumpkins.

The Photojournalist sees Nigel staring at the heads. "The heads. You're looking at the heads. Sometimes she goes too far, and she's the first one to admit it."

Chef looks at the Photojournalist. "She's gone crazy."

"Wrong! Wrong! If you could have heard the girl just two days ago, if you could've heard her then. God. You were gonna call her crazy?"

Chef looks with extreme disbelief at the Photojournalist. "Yes! Look at these severed heads!"

Nigel interrupts him before he can say more. "I just want to talk to her."

"Well, man, she's gone away. She disappeared out in the jungle with her people."

"I'll wait for her."

**This is a good half way point. The story will probably pick back up in August. **


End file.
